The Wave & The Quake

If you see this man in your neighborhood get the hell out of there fast because some geological catastrophe is about to happen.

And jeez if you are in a sequel to the last catastrophe don’t let him try to help you!

So I’m back on my foreign disaster movie kick after I really enjoyed The Burning Sea by this team I went back and watched the first two films…

The Wave was the first and it’s about a small town man (Kristian) whose about to leave his job behind and move to the big city but when the water levels drop he gets nervous and winds up staying for one extra fatal night.

Yeah I’m not going to comment on the science so much because it’s a disaster film and honestly they made it sound a lot better than Hollywood usually does. But the main conceit is that if there’s an earthquake in the mountains that would trigger a tidal wave and the nearest town, Geiranger, would be wiped out. The residents having an estimated ten minutes before the wave reaches them to get to higher ground.

Honestly look at this place. I’d live there anyway…

I really liked this one. It was a simple disaster concept and I did like Kristian and his family. The mom Idun, was a real surprise and turned out to be a total badass.

I thought the effects were pretty good.

I also liked that they kept the wave part and the time probably right on. They didn’t stretch it out too much. Likely because we were really concentrating on one family and not the forty or fifty characters a movie like this tends to shove in to have a bunch they can kill off for maximum sadness.

Anyway-

Recommend The Wave: Yes.

And now on to a more typical type of sequel.

After moving to Oslo Kristian can’t take the guilt of the people he didn’t save so abandons his family to return home. Only the strange death of a former co-worker brings him back in and almost immediately he hits on the fact that a major earthquake is coming and no one is listening to him.

He sort of teams up with the dead man’s poor daughter who probably would have been a lot safer if she hadn’t meet Kristian.

Kristian: Your father was just trying to keep you safe.

Kristian: I on the other hand am not even going to try.

(Okay it’s not that bad but kind of what it feels like.)

There is a death in here that I was surprised by how much it hurt. And it was maybe a bit too brutal. There’s also probably way more death defying stuff than they ever touched with The Wave.

Plus I honestly couldn’t help but think Kristian’s family, at least some of them, and Merritt (the dead man’s kid) probably would have been better off if he hadn’t tried to save them. But that’s just me.

So story wise I didn’t like The Quake as much. It’s far more typical of these types of movies and I didn’t like the big death- but it was still a fast enjoyable film that I’m not sorry I watched.

Recommend The Quake: Overall yes.

I think all 3 films are good if you are just branching out and getting your feet wet in subtitled international film fare.